BEAUFORD
JESTER

by
Archie P. McDonald

It has been a long time since a son or daughter of East Texas has served as governor
of Texas. Governors Rick Perry, George Bush, and Ann Richards are all Central
and West Texans, and even Bill Clements and Mark White likely should be considered
Big City representatives from Dallas and Houston.

There was no question
that Beauford Halbert Jester was an East Texan, even though he was born and raised
in Corsicana in Navarro County,
which, admittedly, is located on the edge. And Jester also was born to politics,
since his father served two terms as lieutenant governor from 1894 to 1898.

Jester
was educated at the University of Texas and attended Harvard Law School before
leaving to command an infantry company in France during WWI. He returned to Austin
to complete his legal studies, then opened a practice in Corsicana in 1920. Most
of Jester’s cases involved the oil and gas industry, and he also managed family
ranching and mineral interests. Jester served on the Board of Regents of his alma
mater during the 1930s, until appointed by Governor Coke Stevenson to the Railroad
Commission. Later, Jester was elected to a full term on the commission, and served
until elected governor in 1946. That election originally featured fourteen candidates
for the Democratic nomination. The most controversial contender was Homer Price
Rainey, former president of the University of Texas and also an ordained minister
who had earned a Ph.D. Rainey’s "former" status really meant fired, because he
had opposed the university’s board of regents over firings of faculty and banning
books from its library. Tactics of Rainey’s opponents included men-only meetings
featuring readings of portions of the banned books. Jester, who stayed above the
fray, then claimed that he was the only candidate "without mud on his hands,"
and he won.

Jester was reelected in 1948 but died following a heart attack
on July 11, 1949, sustained while he rode a railroad train from Austin to Houston,
and Lt. Gov. Allan
Shivers succeeded to the governor’s office. Jester had been a successful governor.
His administration witnessed passage of the Gilmer-Aikin
Law, which established state funding for public education, adoption of state
assistance for rural roads, and other reforms. He is the only governor of Texas
who died while still in office.